July 22, 2007

VietNamNet Bridge – On the morning of July 15, police forces of HCM City and the southern province of Long An discovered two Korean ‘bridegrooms’ who were ‘palpating’ 67 young Vietnamese ‘brides’.

The examination took place at a hotel in Duc Hoa district, Long An province, held by ‘match-makers’ Nguyen Thi Tram, 54, from HCM City, and Vong Dung Hung, 33, from Long An province.

Tram and Hung always keep tens of young girls in their houses as ‘candidates’ for ‘bride selections’ of Korean men. Those girls mainly come from southwestern provinces and don’t have stable jobs and desire to go abroad.

At any time, Tram and Hung can immediately meet the needs of Korean ‘bridegrooms’. They also work with other ‘match-makers’ to mobilise hundreds of ‘candidates’ if clients need.

So far this year police have detected nearly ten ‘selections’ like this.

July 22, 2007

VietNamNet Bridge – On the morning of July 15, police forces of HCM City and the southern province of Long An discovered two Korean ‘bridegrooms’ who were ‘palpating’ 67 young Vietnamese ‘brides’.

The examination took place at a hotel in Duc Hoa district, Long An province, held by ‘match-makers’ Nguyen Thi Tram, 54, from HCM City, and Vong Dung Hung, 33, from Long An province.

Tram and Hung always keep tens of young girls in their houses as ‘candidates’ for ‘bride selections’ of Korean men. Those girls mainly come from southwestern provinces and don’t have stable jobs and desire to go abroad.

At any time, Tram and Hung can immediately meet the needs of Korean ‘bridegrooms’. They also work with other ‘match-makers’ to mobilise hundreds of ‘candidates’ if clients need.

So far this year police have detected nearly ten ‘selections’ like this.

July 22, 2007

Community plans protests against magazine

Many members of the local Vietnamese-American community say they are offended by Viet Weekly’s pro-communist stance.

By DEEPA BHARATH

The Orange County Register

GARDEN GROVE – Hundreds of Vietnamese Americans are expected to protest today outside the Main Street office of a weekly news magazine, which many allege is serving as a mouthpiece for the communist government in Vietnam by publishing a series of articles sympathetic to the communists.

The Viet Weekly has incurred the wrath of the expatriate community in Little Saigon, many of whom came to the United States as refugees in the years following the fall of Saigon on April 30 1975.

But publisher Le Vu, himself a refugee who fled Vietnam by boat, said he is simply exercising his First Amendment rights. He said his main goal in printing stories about communists is to create a forum for dialogue and open doors for discussion that were shut decades ago.

“All we’re trying to do is to tell both sides of the story,” he said.

But organizers of today’s rally such as Diep Le say it is by no means a small portion of the community.

On Sunday more than 1,000 people gathered at the Westminster Civic Center to plan a protest against Viet Weekly, and many of them were so incensed that they wanted to go out to Main Street and protest right away, Le said.

“We’re a community of people who have suffered in the hands of the communists,” Le said. “It upsets us when we see a newspaper in this community praising communists.”

Demonstrators plan to protest outside the newspaper office for several days, he said.

“We don’t like the way they work and we’ll protest until they change their ways,” Le said.

Freedom of press is not the issue here, said Thuy Hoang, program director for the VNCR radio station in Little Saigon, who does a daily news program himself.

“Imagine if you glorify Hitler in a predominantly Jewish community or write pro-Ku Klux Klan articles in a newspaper that circulates in a black community,” he said. “That’s exactly what this is.”

The problem many Vietnamese Americans have with the Viet Weekly is that their reporting is not fair and balanced, said Jean Libby, a retired history teacher who created her own blogspot titled Viet-Am Review, where she mostly writes about accomplishments of Vietnamese Americans.

She said Viet Weekly recently twisted the words of Michael Marine, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, saying that he condoned the actions of the communist government in suppressing the rights of political dissidents such as Catholic priest, Nguyen Van Ly. The photograph of Ly, whose mouth was covered by a plainclothes officer as he tried to speak in a Vietnam courtroom, was widely circulated in Little Saigon and viewed with disgust by local community members.

Vu said the members in the community who criticize his magazine are not proponents of free speech as they like to believe.

“Vietnamese Americans came to this country in pursuit of freedom,” Vu said. “Now, they can’t take it that I’m publishing something that they cannot accept. There’s no way we’ll change the way we operate.”

Bob Jones, a Westminster resident who served as a U.S. diplomat in Vietnam before 1975 and later worked with Vietnamese refugees in Minnesota, said he believes the Viet Weekly young reporters have touched a nerve because of their “courageous reporting.”

“The older generation still has strong feelings about the communist government,” he said. “But the new generation is getting over the differences, want to travel back home and reestablish ties. Viet Weekly is trying to portray that, but is facing resistance from the community.”

July 2, 2007

Korean scriptwriter: I love pho

16:58′ 25/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Kwon In Chan in Hanoi

VietNamNet Bridge – Award-winning Korean scriptwriter, Kwon In Chan, talked about the making of Scent of Coriander, an ambitious 100-episode Korean-Vietnamese joint venture about pho (Vietnamese noodles) currently being broadcast on HTV7.

To understand Vietnamese people’s thinking and lifestyle, you’ve spent 6 months in Vietnam. So what have you learned about them?

I have met many high school students and other young people in Vietnam in order to understand what they wanted for their future. I’m very interested in Vietnam and Vietnamese culture and want to help breathe new life into Vietnamese TV films.

I love to eat Vietnamese pho. In Korea, I eat a lot of pho. And I’ve learned that two important unique features of Vietnamese culture are pho and ao dai (traditional dress). In Scent of Coriander, ao dai frequently appear.

After being broadcast on HTV, the film will also be translated into Korean and broadcast on Korean TV. And I hope that through Scent of Coriander, the relationship between the two countries’ scriptwriters, directors and audiences will be closer.

What if Vietnamese audiences think that Scent of Coriander smells more Korean than Vietnamese?

As the scriptwriter, I think it isn’t Korean at all. Yet, the film team includes 8 Korean members, so it may be unavoidable for the film to have some sort of a Korean motif.

Have Vietnamese filmmakers bought another multi-episode script from you?

Yes. It is Magical Boy. The film has also been produced in Korea and received warm support from the public. This is a cute and interesting film, which will be produced by Vietnamese directors and cast Vietnamese actors.

Hong and Quy, along with two other Vietnamese citizens, are stopping in four American cities, including Chicago, this week to drum up awareness for their illnesses, which they say were caused by Agent Orange, a defoliant the U.S. sprayed on the Vietnam landscape during the Vietnam War.

Last week, they sat in a New York courthouse as their lawyers sought to reinstate a proposed class-action suit in arguments before a federal appeals court. The lawyers argued that U.S. chemical companies committed war crimes when they provided the U.S. military with herbicides containing the toxin dioxin. They want a jury to decide whether the companies should pay damages to 3 million Vietnamese.

A U.S. District judge in New York dismissed the lawsuit in 2005, ruling that Agent Orange cannot be considered a poison under international rules of war, that there is no evidence to show the companies acted with criminal intent, and that there are no large studies proving dioxin is to blame.

American troops sprayed more than 21 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to destroy vegetative cover used by communist forces.

Hong she said she was exposed directly to the herbicide in 1964 while a member of the National Liberation Front. In 1990, she moved to Bien Hoa, where dioxin had been stored. The residents drank water and ate fish from a nearby lake, she said. In 1999, she was diagnosed with cancer.

“I am here as living evidence,” she said Monday through a translator, standing near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in downtown Chicago. “I want the United States government to see the damage to our bodies, to our land and to our people.”

Thousands of American veterans receive medical disability benefits related to Agent Orange. In 1984, seven chemical companies settled out of court for $180 million with U.S. veterans who claimed the herbicide caused their health problems.

On Friday, when President Bush met with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, he mentioned the lingering effects of Agent Orange and the $3 million Congress approved to clean up the “hot spots” that remain in the country. And this month, the Ford Foundation formed a “dialogue group,” which includes Vietnamese leaders and Christine Todd Whitman, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to study the issue.

But advocates say studies and dialogue aren’t helping the millions of Vietnamese exposed to Agent Orange who are scraping by on the compensation they receive from their government.

“Dialogue is better than no dialogue,” said Merle Ratner, co-coordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign, which is working to raise awareness of the lawsuit. “But this is urgent. These people are dying.”

The U.S. organizations Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace & Justice and the National Lawyers Guild are sponsoring the group’s visit.

Seth Waxman, a former U.S. solicitor general who argued on behalf of the companies last week, said Monday that he wouldn’t comment on the case because it was pending.

He said in court last week that the companies were following the instructions of U.S. leaders during wartime and that the use of Agent Orange was a battlefield decision. The plaintiffs can’t sue the U.S. government because of sovereign immunity.

July 2, 2007

June 29 2007

As part of its Environmental Justice Program, EPA has awarded a $100,000 Collaborative Problem-Solving Grant to the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, which says the money will be used specifically to help clear the air, reduce exposure to toxic chemicals, and educate the staff and patrons of more than 70 Vietnamese-owned and operated nail salons in King County, Washington. It is one of 10 grants awarded to community-based, nonprofit organizations across the country.

Called the “Toxic Beauty” Project, the coalition is focusing efforts to improve human health and the environment in the nail salons located in low-income communities and communities of color in the Seattle and South Seattle areas, showing salon owners how to achieve healthier air inside their establishments through behavior changes of workers and increased awareness of safer alternatives for the owners themselves.

“We are grateful that the EPA has funded this project, which will address a key environmental justice issue in our community,” said Charlie Cunniff, ECOSS executive director. “ECOSS and our partner, the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, will use multilingual outreach to educate nail salon owners, technicians, and clients. We hope that through this collaboration, we can help businesses make changes that will result in a healthier environment for all.”

Elin Miller, EPA’s NW Regional Administrator in Seattle, said, “This project is about protecting people where they live. It will help South Seattle salon owners, technicians, and neighbors make changes to reduce their exposure to nail salon toxics.”